26 TRAVELS ABOUT HOME 



Just at this point I take occasion to introduce a picture 

 made later in theseason,of a Hummer poised before a flower. 

 It serves very well to represent tlie appearance of Mr. Bur 

 roughs' bird while visiting his honeysuckles, gathering food 

 for her young. It will be observed that the filmy halo, con 

 stituting the wings of the Hummer in flight, does not appear 

 in this picture ; nevertheless the exposure was made, if my 

 focal-plane shutter scale does not prevaricate, in less than 

 an eight-hundredth part of a second. 



"■ Paused before a flower " 



On one occasion, we observed another Plunmier in the 

 vicinity ; the bird flew directly up to the one on the nest, and 

 evidently looked her straight in the eyes, but for so small a 

 fragment of time that we do not know whether it was male 

 or female. At any rate, the stranger seemed to be quite fa 

 miliar with the air-line to the nest, though, as Mi-. Bur- 

 roughs said, it is possible that Hummers may have an eye 

 for Hummers ' nests. 



